Doubling Down: Thursday’s Paired Action Doesn’t Disappoint
Rain throughout Dallas moved Thursday’s matches inside and made for cooler temperatures, but the day’s doubles matches certainly brought the heat.
Here’s everything you need to know from Round of 16 doubles action to get up to speed for Friday’s quarterfinals.
MIXED DOUBLES
No. 4 seeds Riley Newman and Parris Todd were pushed to the brink by No. 13 seeds Dekel Bar and Tina Pisnik in a back-and-forth match lasting five games.
One of the challenges the victors faced was dealing with the increased speed of Bar’s already powerful serves and drives on the indoor court.
"Dekel is definitely a great indoor player,” said Todd. “The ball dips through the air a little bit faster inside, and his serve was so big that sometimes we weren’t able to unwind the stack, which forced me to stay on the left at times.”
But the higher-seeded team had some patterns of their own that ultimately allowed them to prevail, relying specifically on Todd’s crosscourt dinks and speed-ups to gain control of rallies.
“What we tried to do a little different in that match is when [Parris] got a ball she liked, trying to actually attack crosscourt because if you attack crosscourt, then that next ball usually comes back at your partner, which is me in that case, and I’m usually ready for it,” Newman revealed.
This strategy helped the duo turn the tide of the match, eventually winning the decisive fifth game 11-5.
Another top mixed team also had to mount a comeback Thursday, with No. 2 seeds James Ignatowich and Anna Bright dropping the first game to No. 18 seeds Megan Fudge and Gabriel Tardio.
Even facing the looming threat of a potential upset, the pair relied on their mental fortitude to stay in it.
“I think one of our biggest strengths is how hard we compete, how we stay positive no matter the circumstances,” Ignatowich shared. “And I think that was something that we looked to lean on because we weren’t playing our best pickleball, but we knew that if we didn’t give up, stayed in the moment, and kept grinding, then good things could happen.”
And good things did happen: one of the most energetic teams on tour dropped only three points over the match’s last two games to win and book a spot in the quarters.
WOMEN’S DOUBLES
Riley wasn’t the only member of the Newman family with a marathon match on Thursday. Lindsey Newman and Tina Pisnik emerged victorious over No. 7 seeds Fudge and Susannah Barr in yet another five-set match.
The going was tough for the team early in the match, as Newman faced a barrage of lobs from her opponents.
After dropping the second and third games, though, she decided to change her approach.
“Sometime in game 4, I told myself that I was gonna take two steps back off the kitchen line and not be aggressive on the dinks because they weren’t hurting us with those,” she explained.
This adjustment allowed Newman to reset everything that came her way from the transition zone and play some defense, which she considers one of her strengths on the court.
It also allowed the former top 30-ranked tennis professional Pisnik to have more freedom as the aggressor at the kitchen,
“She has really good counters and attacks,” Newman said of her partner. “A lot of people don’t like going head-to-head with her because she comes from that really, really strong tennis background and has such great, clean short volleys.”
That adjustment proved to make just enough of a difference for Newman and Pisnik at the match’s most critical points, rallying to win 12-10 in a riveting decisive game.
This result sets up a match against No. 2 seeds Anna Bright and Jade Kawamoto on Friday.
MEN’S DOUBLES
One of the first men’s doubles matches of the day featured No. 5 seeds Julian Arnold and Thomas Wilson playing against the No. 12 seeds and brothers, Hunter and Yates Johnson.
Arnold and Wilson got the win in three games, and the way they darted around the court defending overheads and grinding to get from the baseline to the kitchen made for quite the show.
The duo’s combination of defense and athleticism allowed them to play what Arnold refers to as “percentage pickleball” to slow down the Johnson brothers.
“Making them hit extra balls and not letting them have a lot of easy points kept their energy low, and you don’t want a team like that to get hot,” Arnold explained.
Good friends off the court, Wilson and Arnold share a fierce competitiveness that they use to spur each other on when the going gets tough.
“He keeps it fun, but he’s also fiery,” Arnold said of Wilson. “I’m one of the fieriest, so it’s nice to have someone out there who keeps me in check and keeps me positive. And I think we do that for each other.”
Next up for the No. 5 seeds is a matchup with No. 4 seeds Pablo Tellez and Federico Staksrud.
One of the most notable results of the day also came from men’s doubles with No. 11 seeds Hayden Patriquin and Callan Dawson taking out No. 6 seeds Tyson McGuffin and Andrei Daescu in four games.
The duo used some masterfully executed lobs to keep their opponents off balance and never let them settle in. Next up for the tandem are the No. 3 seeds Riley Newman and Christian Alshon, who have yet to drop a game at Nationals.
Thursday’s nightcap featured Ignatowich again, this time partnered with Tyler Loong against Connor Garnett and Rafa Hewett.
The match boasted some incredible shot-making on both sides and, of course, went to a fifth game.
MLP doubles partners Garnett and Hewett struck first and held the lead for most of the game, but a final run by Ignatowich and Loong helped the duo punch their ticket to the quarterfinals.
Up next for the team is a date with No. 1 seeds Ben and Collin Johns.
You can watch catch quarterfinal action Friday on PPA Tour YouTube or PickleballTV.
